One of the most endearing qualities of Airbnb is that it offers travelers a more unique experience. Instead of booking an expensive hotel room in Barcelona, why not find someone who’s willing to let you crash at their apartment in a really cool part of town? Airbnb has always been about unique experiences, but a new feature they’re testing might just take that whole concept a step further.
Airbnb is currently experimenting with letting people offer up unique experiences to potential travelers. Currently, these “experiences” are only available in San Francisco and Paris, but Airbnb will no doubt open it up to more and more cities if the concept is a hit.
In San Francisco, for instance, you can check out experiences in four categoires: Food & Drinks, sightseeing, outdoors, and explore & learn.
In one example, Daniel is offering to cook you “the magic of his BBQ” from his North Beach rooftop garden. For $18, Daniel will introduce you to the city while cooking you dinner on May 28th and 7:00 pm.
Or Pamela will take you hike the “outside lands” of San Francisco with her.
“Our hike will begin at the Coastal Trail at Lands End Look Out where a 1.5 mile “out and back” trail weaves through time and space like a tale of two cities: coastal wilderness meets high-tech civilization. You will see the ruins of the Sutro Baths, opened in 1894 by Adolph Sutro, whose vision was to bring the 99% out to his 1.7 million gallon sea-water filled swimming pool. We’ll be scouting the sea for pods of porpoise and fog-drenched cliffs for coastal plants, as powerful tides “roll in” through the “Gate” in this rarefied natural landscape. I’ll be your Interpretive guide to the cultural history, flora and fauna which includes 36 endangered species in this designated UNESCO bioreserve,” she says.
Sounds like a fun time. She’s charging $40 and does the guided hike every Monday at 10am and Wednesday at 4pm.
Each “experience” listing on Airbnb work like each residence listing–it allows users to rate and review.
It’s just a small test right now, and there’s no guarantee that this will become part of Airbnb’s overall model. The company gave a non-statement statement to TechCrunch:
“We are always experimenting with new ways to create meaningful experiences on Airbnb, we currently don’t have any updates to share.”
What do you think? Would you like Airbnb to be more than just room bookings?
Image via Airbnb